The Avalon Boys Basketball Program has started the 2021-2022 season and so far they have been taught a few lessons by their competition.
Avalon opened the season against Bolsa Grande and Westminster, two large public schools with enrollments over 2,000 and hopefully took some notes on some of the strategies that were implemented by their opponents.
Both schools had some great three-point shooters and a full court man to man defense all over the court.
Junior Varsity
In our first JV game Adan Ventura led the Lancers in scoring with 6 points, coming from two three-point shots.
The Lancers are young and inexperienced but show potential for the future. In their second game of the season against Westminster the Lancers were overmatched by a superior team but also showed improvement from their first game. Sophomores Cole Konigsmark and Aaron Castro were the leading scorers with 11 and 8 points respectively. Castro also had 11 rebounds.
The JV team now has a month to practice and get ready for league play.
Varsity
The Varsity team has experienced some of the same early season frustrations as the JV squad.
In their first game against Bolsa Grande the Lancers came out sluggish and so did Bolsa Grande. Both teams fought hard but with little offensive production.
The Lancers fell behind 14-4 in the first quarter but came alive in the second quarter and got to within two points at 15-13.
In the third quarter both teams began to score. Unfortunately, Bolsa Grande had more points with a 34-point quarter and put the game away.
The Lancers never gave up and just like the JV squad showed some potential for future success.
The outstanding players for Avalon were James Hall with 17 points and 14 rebounds, and Johnny Hernandez with 14 points and five rebounds.
In their second game of the season against Westminster High School the Lancers showed some improvement in hustle and effort. Unfortunately, the Lions were too fast and too big for the Lancers to overcome the deficit.
James Hall and Johnny Hernandez were the leaders again. Hall had 16 points and 18 rebounds.
Hernandez had 11 points and 4 rebounds.
The Lancers looked their best offensively in the second quarter where they scored 18 points. Hall had 12 of the 18.
Unfortunately, they gave up 25 and could never catch up. Avalon showed that when they play hard and together, they can compete with the bigger schools. They look forward to having a complete squad this week and hope to gain their first victories of the season as we are bringing back the Catalina Classic tournament for the twenty ninth year, missing only last year because of the Pandemic.
The Catalina Classic is a three-day tournament with three teams from the mainland and our Varsity team. We played yesterday, and play again today, Friday, Dec. 10, at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday, Dec. 11, at 10:30 a.m. Come on up and support our local high school student/athletes as they return to a somewhat normal season.
